Harry Redknapp may have made seven changes to QPR's most recent League side but in the squad era it was still a hugely experienced side including top scorer, Charlie Austin and veteran former Manchester United defender, Rio Ferdinand, who won just about everything the domestic game could offer. Sheffield United, despite being a League One team, had twice led in the semi final with Hull last year after pulling off sensational victories against Aston Villa and Fulham. QPR did not take the tie lightly but it didn't matter, with their own dreadfull cup record as the game was widely tipped as an upset but nobody predicted just how comfortably it would be delivered. QPR actually started quite well until being caught on the counter attack to fall behind to an excellently worked goal, finished off by Marc McNulty. United, with the better recent cup reputation, started the second half strongly and crucially doubled their lead through Jamal Campbell-Ryce and though QPR showed some puff when Leroy Fer saw his shot cleared off the line they were well, truely and deservedly stuffed when Campbell-Ryce rounded the keeper in injury time to add gloss to a fully deserved victory for the League One side. A little disappointingly, United bowed out in a fourth round replay at home to divisional rivals, Preston, missing out on a clash with Manchester United in the process. {image above-Jamal Campbel-Ryce slams the final nail in QPR's cup coffin}

It was a century to the month since these two sides met in a wartime cup tie at the old Vetch Field and Swansea pulled off a huge upset. Back then Blackburn were the Champions and Swansea were in the Second Division of the Southern League, effectively a fourth tier of the game at the time. That game took place against the backdrop of World War One when the wider public rightly felt that there was a greater game to be played. Players from both sides would go on to lose their lives in France. Despite that, some 16,000 people turned up for that game. Fair enough in a time when there weren't that many other leisure activities to compete with a good game of Football. A Century on and Blackburn were now the underdog, from the second tier with Swansea a top flight side. The events of 1915 had long been forgotten with the passing of the generation who played in and watched the game and as the two teams stood for a minute to remember former Rover's manager, Ken Furphy, who passed away the previous week it was perhaps a shame that nobody at either club picked up on how significant it may have been to mark that generation of a century earlier. Not that there were many there to pay attention anyway as the tie failed to capture the imagination of the Rovers faithful. Ewood Park opened its doors to just under 6,000 spectators, almost 10,000 down on their most recent Championship game. City meanwhile could also muster just five hundred travelling fans. Considering that the two sides were lying mid table, with no danger of being involved in relegation and watching their respective promotion and European hopes disappearing over the horizon, it too was a shame. It was perhaps also confirmation that in the 21st Century, the early rounds of the cup were of little interest to fans of teams in the top two divisions until they reach the fifth round or quarter finals. It looked like City would progress, despite losing Kyle Bartley after just six minutes when he was adjudged to be the last man in bringing down Josh King on the edge of the penalty area. The swans survived the resultant free kick and then the ten men went in front through a cracking drive from Gylfi Sigurdsson. Blackburn rolled up their sleeves and struck back instantly through Chris Taylor. The game appeared to be drifting towards a replay, especially when Swansea started to adopt a more defensive position in the last quarter of the game. It proved disastrous when Rudy Gestede was allowed all the time in the world to redirect his own mistimed header into the roof of the City net. Swansea understandably abandoned their defensive stance but found it difficult to regain their tempo and were undone late on when Craig Conway's long range effort should have been saved by Lukasz Fabianski, only for the keeper to allow the ball to squirm past him To top off City's miserable afternoon, goalscorer, Sigurdsson allowed his frustrations to get the better of him and was sent off for a reckless challenge in injury time. {image above: Rovers players celebrate the clinching third goal in front of the sparsely populated stands}

Blackburn’s League form remained inconsistent after their cup victory over Swansea, losing their two away games and winning their two home games to sit ninth, with no improvement in their chances of catching the teams in the play-off places. With that sort of form a home draw was key for the men from Ewood Park. Stoke, lying tenth in the Premier League were even more inconsistent, having won, drawn and lost their three most recent games since beating Rochdale convincingly on Fourth Round day. Manager Mark Hughes still had cause to feel confident that he could get the better of a club he once helped to win the League cup and also managed in their Premier League days. The hopes of City fans must have been raised when Hughes kept faith with his Premier League team making just one change from the side beaten by title chasing Manchester City in midweek. This was in stark contrast to Rovers manager Gary Bowyer who made wholesale changes to his side, fielding just three of the men who won their midweek game against Rotherham. Sadly yet again the Blackburn faithful seemed apathetic towards the cup as they turned out in only slightly better numbers than for the Swansea game. Thankfully a large presence from Stoke boosted the attendance towards Blackburn’s normal Championship level. It looked like they would be rewarded too when Peter Crouch stuck one of his long legs out to break the deadlock at a corner. And they should have had a second a few minutes later through Diouf, leaving the sparse Blackburn crowd to be worried early on. However the game appeared to turn twenty minutes in when Blackburn got their first chance when Josh King crashed a drive off the bar. It would still be his day though.Diouf then missed a sitter for Stoke and was made to pay when King levelled with only his second ever goal for Rovers. Yet again it was a corner with King, whose only previous Rovers goal came against Swansea in the last round, got the faintest of touches to steer it past Butland. An early injury to Ben Marshall led to a whopping eight minutes of first half stoppage time in which the tie was seemingly won and lost. Stoke had struggled to cope with King all day and when Geoff Cameron pulled him down and saw a straight red card. Rudy Gestede, already guilty of missing one of several great chances that fell to both sides, made amends by stroking home the penalty. There was a little good fortune about the third goal early in the second half when King was allowed clean through after Muniesa pulled up with a hamstring injury but it killed Stoke off and King earned a deserved hat-trick with an almost carbon copy goal five minutes later. With the game over as a contest it was a shame to see disturbances break out among the visiting Stoke fans on what was a terribly frustrating afternoon for them. It was only a tiny blot on an otherwise great afternoon for Blackburn and King in particular as they marched into the quarter final draw while the Football writers queued up to use the St Valentine's Day Massacre headline.